Board of Education Meeting

001uh to order the regular meeting of the Brookfield Board of Education it's Wednesday July 17th and I believe it's 701 702 72 okay so please join me um and say the Pledge of Allegiance to get startat indivis okay so um the roll call is a little bit um different this evening we have our new member Miss Erin scera welcome thank you and um Rob padow is unable to join us this evening so it's us all right so we're start with um I know Sor uh sorry yeah I'm an educator I get it you get this anyway um so for public comments the Board of Education welcomes public comment each speaker shall have up to three minutes to provide input to the board at the start of each regular meeting a maximum of 20 minutes is

002allotted uh for any for comment on any item included on the agenda for that meeting at the end of each regular meeting time is allotted for comment on items within the board's jurisdiction which would also include overflow time which I don't think would be an issue um discussion of school idual students or individual members of the board is prohibited so first on our list for this evening is Mrs Korea Arin Korea 45 West whis skire Road um I wanted to discuss the um ship win and Goodwin policy that is on the agenda tonight um they are offering a policy review for $4,000 and then a continuation later on I believe it is a $1,500 year fee afterwards um which I think is a a good thing to do to you know help stay on top

003of you know current Law changes um but in 2021 we paid $122,800 for cave review and the one problem I see is that we didn't incorporate everything that cave told us to do um multiple little changes and the one thing uh I just want to point out one of the things I want to point out is that not only is it legislative changes but there are changes within the school that shipment of Goodwin or cave would not know about and one of the examples is uh the policy on National Honor Society it states 3.5 anybody that has a child in the high school knows that it's 4.0 no C doesn't know that um so the this is a policym board you have be able to go through and read each policy and if you don't

004have a child in the high school is ask somebody of the high school ask you know ask the principle what you know is it reflective in you know the handbook um you have to go a step further you just can't take the information that this company's servic is going to provide you and take it at face value you have to dig deeper and deeper to get these policies um and that's that's what needs to be done we just can't take it to face value because there are many of them that are not updated uh one of them is the uh weapons on campus currently right now we can only have um sro's and any police officer entering the building to have a gun on their on their person and right now we have Asos that

005have that um that's not updated you know cave may not know we have Asos or should been a goodwi so there has to be a deep dive on these policies going forward and making sure they're all up to date thanks thank you very much and next we have um Mrs C 21 me View Drive Brookfield Connecticut I actually was not planning on coming here this evening so I have nothing prepared I did see the agenda and I saw about the policies um to you know you'll have a vote on the additional $4,000 and then some for um the policies initially I was that I've made it very vocal about what's going on this year with my own child with special education um and since then I had filed a 1312 complaint which was denied um

006because it was considered a personal issue it was not a personal issue at this point it had far exceeded a Personnel issue it wasn't the who the what the where it was how how did this happen a person was hired that was not credentialed to fill that position and how did that multi-layers um were not utilized as part of the procedur procedures and assuring that the proper educator was in that classroom for those children um so I have no problem I think a lot of our policies are Antiquated I think a lot of the policies that we do have are not even followed um so that is definitely something to consider um if we're going to spend the money and have them I was not upset that my complaint was denied because in my complaint

007um with the violations that were found against the district um policy um the school policy has to be presented to the state as part of its findings by September 1st so I do know that we need to get something together and in my complaint if you review it back I pretty much handed it on a silver platter with a pretty little bow on top is very easy to follow if she looked through it um this was not something that I complained about or pulled out of thin air this was a on my child um with policies not being followed a simple lookup on the Connecticut State Department of Education if you just if anyone had taken the time to look up um what is required it would have shown there that a certified special education

008teacher to handle a case load is essential is needed and that was not provided to not only my children but all the children on that case load Sor um are we I just want to make sure we're I can talk about my own child I I just wanted to bring it to your attention we just talk about I didn't bring up any Personnel we're hoping that you you you mentioned you wanted to to so it's I'm talking about the policies so initially I was against the spending of the $4,000 when I read it because it's not about the policies I mean it is it's about the policies making sure that they're current but we're kind of follow how good are they thank you Mrs K appreciate it all right so we're going to move uh

009next to um written correspondence thank you the following people have emailed the Board of Education since the last meeting on June 5th Juan aloker Boe vacancy Bob Beldon party balance and vacancies and Boe vacancy and policy Services Courtney Sean Boe seeking new member Elena Lopez Boe vacancy and application for Boe vacancy Robert Gino Boe vacancy Joyce bino Boe vacancy Jody Rodriguez application for Boe vacancy Christopher Dennis application for Boe vacancy Jessica Hansen Boe vacancy Courtney C application for bo bo vacancy Irene Korea application for Boe vac sorry Boe vacancy and policy Services Matt gmes application for Boe vacancy Denise rice ESS Staffing safety concerns at CES Tazo stairs and followup Caroline cows application for Boe vacancy Kimberly Abu BHS adopta Senor Michael einig cell phone policy question fera application for Boe vacancy and Lacy rebello

010stem program great so now let's um move to approval of board minutes I move sorry I can uh I'm I move that the board approve the minutes listed below as recommended regular meeting 65 2024 special board meeting 613 2024 special meeting meeting 71 2024 special meeting 76 2024 so we have the motion and a second any discussion on this okay all in favor please signify by saying I I any opposed okay so the minutes are approved thank you very much um now let's go to the superintendent's report Dr BR what you have for us all right thank you Dr Young Blood Mrs scolo welcome to the board um want to let everybody know right off the bat kindergarten enrollment right now we're holding steady from where we were in June 122 students formally enrolled all

011of the 1227 um students U are part of the age exception that are part of that with the new September one uh birth date rule they work through with the staff and going through the uh kindergarten uh screenings that gives us a balance of an average excuse me of 15.25 students per section because we have eight sections as a reminder for kindergarten board guidelines are to 20 students per section with 19 as the target so we're below the minimum guideline right now um our enrollment projection uh was approximately 160 students for this year which would give us 20 students per uh per section which would be about the high end of the board's um uh guideline we all know that uh it's still Midsummer and um there will be I know I was talking with

012Mrs Ruggles and she's really has a lot of anx about what late August is going to bring with students registering um I don't think we'll remain at this low number um I'm pretty confident there will be many more kids that register over time and through September um with house purchases and leases that get updated and things like that so I'll keep you updated for the August 14th meeting of where we're at but that's where have for kindergarten enrollment uh let's see here uh and also um with the board the the budget approval U we did engage with uh Dr who's done enrollment um studies for us before he's currently working on the next next 10 year enrollment study for us summer projects at Candlewood Lake uh kind of balancing out on that the parking lot

013is uh being worked on they're working if anybody drives through you'll see they're working on the islands they're working on the ballards and their work ballards are the barriers there Happ to be poles that are um locked into the ground that come out to prevent vehicular traffic from getting close to the building and it's a safety measure and uh the stamp concrete walkways are all being built in so um we've been assured by the NBC and om that um they needed 30 days or actual work days to complete their work this summer I think they're somewhere around day 16 or 17 so we're we're very hopeful that they'll have plenty of time with any uh any setbacks or a period of uh significant rain where it rains all day and they can't pour concrete or

014things like that that they can't get the work done plenty of time for when the teachers return uh well before the students uh after Labor Day um I shared with the uh policy and Communications Committee just before this meeting I've been working with Mr Dunn on a on a dedication ceremony date tentatively we are thinking of September 12th it's a Thursday evening we would do the formal dedication we're also developing a working on a plaque designed for a plaque that would be the dedication plaque September 12th the reason for that week it's the second week of but it's before the week where we have the September 20th board meeting so we figured we didn't want to do anything in August we talked about that it would be nice a lot of people are taking different

015vacations and wouldn't be able to get all our officials there and we need to give plenty of time these kind of ribbon cutting ceremonies you involve The Architects and you know the owner agent paradus in this case um om representation it's a big deal and we want all of our elect officials to be there and as many parents and kids that can be there as possible and any staff of course um and then Public tours if the parking lot is finished up and safe and painted and ready to go we might even start Public tours offering those after hours or even during the school day the kids aren't in school yet um uh around weekends for for the the town folks to get in there and see the building we're excited about get some kids

016kids staff board members anybody uh to to give tours I see Mr Beldon back there he was a pro at giving tours as a board member so uh employ him as well so that's CS security enhancements so everybody know knows we're working on updating the annual all hazards plan uh that that is a big project for each school and for the district not only crisis plans and things of that nature but also floor plans and maps and uh evacuation procedures all those kinds of things so that's being updated uh that's due in early fall to the state department of Ed we're also working with um the police chief and the major as well as officer osuch he'll be doing training in each school over the course of the fall on Atlas training uh it's an

017updated kind of lock down procedure I sh that the board in the update uh last week Ballers will be installed should be installed for the start of school at the middle school and the high school again Ballers are barriers in front of the building to prevent vehicular traffic from going in through a building uh by accident or on purpose um our Ballers that we're purchasing will look kind of like the balls at Target they'll be those big heavy they sit on a pin and they're locked down that way um let's see what else do we have technology and public engagement uh the new website was launched uh parent Square dat went out yesterday uh the old website is still uh working if anybody goes there there's still pretty good information there but we're not continuing

018to update the old website moving to the new website we have a banner on the old website that directs people to the new website um I'm certain by the end of summer the old website will fade out of use that's up to the company to determine when they uh turn it off if the old website is still active in August we will like we did this week I'll ask Lisa to put the information up there because people are used to going to that one but book Brookfield ps.org bookmark that that's the new website what oh yes back to security thank you Anna um and we did uh the police department hired a new arm school security officer for the high school um they've already started there's some they're a little bit at the high school

019and there's a heavy uh student turnout here but they're spending a lot of time in the mornings over at whir where we have a lot of summer school and extended school year work going on covering the buildings thank let's see here and then parents Square uh is is fully active and we're just encouraging people to sign up for parents Square our uh parent student staff engagement uh platform School Improvement plans uh or sips as we call them um they're aligned with the Strategic plan and the port of The Graduate um really big Focus areas are going to be uh School climate and of course academics under School climate there's a couple things we're doing uh in reflective intelligence I've talked a little bit with the board before about the partnership with College uh Tim Klein

020is actually the lead on this he'll actually be doing our convocation uh keynote address he'll be working with the administration uh before convocation and then throughout the year with our our faculty um mostly with the High School faculty but he will be available for the B and Elementary as necessary we're also going to be working on some uh uh action research regarding teacher efficacy specifically in the areas of communication collaboration connection and belief um so there's going to be some work going on with that so we're really excited about that and there's a whole host of other initiatives the schools are going to be working on they'll all have a school climate goal and then the academic goal the the focus there will be on Reading Writing and then of course uh math Andor stem

021problem solving uh you know how that works at the various levels then before I turn it over to Dr man on the last couple of items there's an item I didn't put on here but just as a reminder to everybody we're engaging um with the Brookfield administrative Association in negotiations the first um meeting is next week where we exchange proposals I think it's next Monday afternoon um the nurse and secretary um uh contracts originally we were hoping the ratification and the approved contracts would be form by the Unions would formally be approved here um their groups haven't gotten fully together and they're finishing up ratification and then we have to get clean copies of the contract in advance to the board before the board would be asked to to actually vote on that so hopefully

022for August 14th we had those two contracts square right Dr man can you take the last couple for me thank you so good news you may remember I think it was just in June but it might have been one of the main meetings we um the board approved the uh new teacher and and administrator evaluation um support and growth plan and we just found out on Monday we got the official word from the state that we are approved so we're good to go um there was just some minor adjustments just some uh Graphics adjustments but after that then they uh sent us our approval letter so that's exciting news so we're ready to start the year off with that um and there'll be a lot of um Orient or orienting the staff of the faculty

023and administration to the new plan and then rolling it out throughout the beginning of the school year through the uh month of October um the second part that I'm going to be reporting on is kind of an update on uh Nas and the New England Association of schools and colleges two parts to that um as you may remember Nas collaborated with the CIA on the athletic uh program review and um the reason for that as just a reminder for everyone is that Nas is looking to adopt their own Athletics progr athletic standards to assist schools and districts in the um as kind of a supplemental or add-on um as part of the accreditation process or possibly a standalone so they've been working hard over the last year to um and actually the you know there's

024a history of uh the person who created the standards for Connecticut was a mass commissioner when and that's when he created the standards was kind predicated on the nas approach back 20 years ago um anyway so they have um they're bringing it for they brought it formally before the commission and they're really excited about it um and they also have been working and so whenever I had a commission meeting in early or end of June as we talked about it there was presented to the commission um in addition uh I went to the Nas Summer chairs workshop last week and um it was highlighted there and Brookfield at every point is being held up as an Exemplar and kind of a um you know an early adopter for this approach um and so we're getting

025a lot of really positive recognition and then finally on July 1st um I was invited to be a co-presenter at the new the national Federation of high schools um for athletics and um extracurriculars because the folks from we asked had a panel uh discussion and so they asked me to come on behalf of Brookfield and talk about the benefit to it of the athletic program review so um we're kind of on the Cutting Edge of all of this and um you know being kind of held up on the national stage so that's exciting um for our district um in addition as you know we are applying for district accreditation and that application is finishing up we're going to submit it by the end of the week the whole draft is finished I just need Dr

026Brill to review it and give me the go-ahead and sign off on it and that um will be submitted so then the next step would be a commission um visit in the fall so first couple weeks of September um a member of the N staff and member of the commission will come and do a full day uh review and meet with a bunch of folks including probably members of this board so you can look forward to that another bunch of meetings set forward um and then finally uh yesterday Monday and Tuesday of this week uh June Gordon and uh Dean Renda and I went to the Yale Center for emotional intelligence for um a leadership uh training Workshop so these this might be familiar to you folks because they are the the group that that

027has um created ruler an Institute of ruler and this has been a ruler District particularly K8 for the last I think six to seven years um and so uh this Workshop was all about emotionally intelligent leadership and how to promote emotional intelligence in your staff and faculty um and really kind of the long story short is that when um Dr Mark Brackett who was the founder of ruler and the founder of this portion of the a center for emotional intelligence came up with the concept of r um and then rolled it out over the first couple years uh he and his team quickly realized that it's great to have a plan for the little people but you have to make sure the big people understand how to regulate their emotions and understand their emotions and

028label their emotions and all that first and so since then probably since about when uh Brookfield adopted ruler there have been all these trainings on helping to really um Institute the uh these skills with adults so that they can then really model and exhibit them for work students um and so it was a really um refreshing and and uh exciting Workshop um you know Miss Gordon doesn't is an 11-month assistant principal so I was thrilled that she was willing to come and give up her time uh to our district so that she can become you know a more informed leader and then uh Dean who had gone through the formal training with Dr BR and Dr Ruby uh back six or seven years ago it was a great refresher for him as well so it

029was nice for the three of us to be together and be with people from all over the country so that was great thank you for the leadership Anna appreciate that um that's it for the report any questions I have question maybe and uh for the August meeting can we get a kindergarten enrollment update as well as the other grade levels absolutely thank you sure Lisa where's Lisa can you make sure we jot that down we'll get that together for everybody we do the enrollment report in October but I I don't know how I'll be able to do high school necessarily but we'll do the best we can with that but we'll get the class size averages for you whatever we can get for you you'll get yeah I just have a question did we ever

030get any information back about the recycling um on it we have the presentation and and Jen Heaton Jones is coming on August 14th to give us a presentation on all the recycling did I skip recycling no it's not it's not in my update no we're saving it for August 14th it's not On's name that's why I was confused August yeah we had talked about we talked about it but it'll be August was like um I have a couple questions Dr bro um regarding the um Dr PR report that be done I think he sent me an update email we had to send him some information you know uh Denise Walsh had to go into power school and dig out some information for him we may have it by the August 14th meeting as a possibility

031okay um another question yeah when you the first item under C maybe I spaced on this but what did you say about flooring there you have that as as an update for CS yeah the flooring oh I you know I still focus on the parking lot the flooring is essentially done the um those of you who've been in the school know that the Tazo on the main stairwell on the landing on the bottom of the main stairwell and on the landing on the top of the main stairwell leading into the upper Media Center was carpeted or rubber depending on on what surface was put on it because it's a two to three week process to do that particular job and they didn't have that time when it came time to open school they were approaching

032Labor Day and there was no way they can get that job done so the dec the NBC and OMG and we we all talked and the decision was made let's try to do it over one of the breaks but the reality is they again they need two to three weeks we don't have the luxury of that over the breaks so it became a summer project the Tazo is on the main there um there's uh rubber treads in it things like that and um and then you know it's like the rest of the Tazo on the uh kind of where the granite stair is if youall that at the bottom and then at the very top Landing uh little hallway area that's like a balcony that leads into the upper Media Center there's all nezle there

033yeah probably good for people to know um right I I guess I have another question but I did want to say to um Dr man prop on that the that's really fantas I don't know you guys have done I mean Educators int just wait till we have do the home District I know um please Gordon um for giving up the personal time to do that because that's no small thing right so thanks everyone okay so uh let's go to subcommittee reports um first is facilities and um is not here we went to ws and did the tour we did we did a walking tour so what we we've started doing at these facility committee meetings which I think has been really helpful is um actually doing walking tours of these buildings which um so we

034can actually put our eyes on these um areas When U Mr calwell is describing them to us so uh we met at uh WMS and we did a walking tour um we went to the boiler room um the gym area uh the back parking lot to look at the roof section and then we thought we would have a better uh view of the roofs if we would took a bird bird's eye view so we will travel to the second floor you know and Mr Caldwell pointing out um different things along the way um in the gymnasium era there's always been an issue with storage um which is a recurring theme pretty much in all buildings in all schools everywhere right there's never enough storage um and so Mr Caldwell was thinking there might be a

035way to work around um that problem in the larger gymnasium by Walling off um this little tiny section of hallway that is just to an exit um there's other egresses in that area um so we we believe that we can basically put a wall up make that whole area a storage room reuse the the large door that's probably a few thousand dollars in the current closet um and have it refaced there so it almost double or triple the the storage area in that space calls reaching out to the building department um Fire Marshall to make sure that we are um all okay to do that and that might be a very easy fix it always comes up when we have the Fire Fire Marshals come through for the fire inspections that we can't be blocking

036certain things and there's just a lot PE equipment you ifus it once a year it's big bulky equipment um and so that was one one area we looked at um we looked at the boiler room because one of the boilers is um set to be replaced this year it's part of our uh year one Capital plan um so it's always it's always interesting isn't it folks you put your eyes on that huge boiler that takes up the whole room and um so so we looked at that um we did look at the roof section um there is a section of roof at whiner that is set to be replaced um and it's this this sort of interesting area of the building where multiple sections come together and so there's different elevations of the roof there's

037different um seams that come together and so it's really prone to a lot of leaks um and so that's that's going to address and that's over the gym area um sort of that area of the building so uh that's set to be uh replaced we're working on putting together the rfps with our uh purchasing agent to get that work started um let's see what else did we go through we looked at the um cafeteria uh floor um that's again that's going to take the problem there that's also part of our year one Capital plan um the the tiles on that floor are up from a moisture problem um coming through the concrete underneath and so the solution to that is to pull up the tiles and put a moisture barrier on top which has different

038curing times so again people have to be out of the buildings we're hoping we can possibly get that done this summer but with the use of the buildings because we can't use CS um that may have to wait over a a long uh Break um over the school year um and I did I miss anything what about the room the multi-purpose room that all the oh we looked at the seminar room seminar yep uh the seminar room which is not in our year one of capital plan but it is I I think year three there's uh sections it's a it's a beautiful room at whiner that is can be used for presentations um things it's a a much smaller version of this room really but the seating in it um the the metal is really

039just worn out and so there's large sections SE that um are broken and can't be used uh We've brought in different um contractors to look at replacing just certain sections no contractor will touch it um because they won't do sectors at a time uh so we've looked at uh I know other districts have redone their whole whole whole rooms so we're looking at what is it worth to do that there's it's also carpeted so for to get new chairs have to do different sections of sort of peeling back that onion right so we're sort of looking at the best way to address that um um that room but again that's not a year one Capital project I don't even think it's year two I believe it's in year three so we have time to to

040puzzle out but it it could be a very beautiful space once it's up and morning so yeah thank you for putting that out Stephie I have a question on that actually um because I know we've been talking about these seats for a while but we had talked about potentially like widening our search for potential vendors um because I know that there's approved ones that can work with the district easily but um replace chairs that really are perfectly fine and we're we're talking about a pretty small section right or multiple sections so it's yeah it's not unfortunately and all the chairs in the room are are the same age so and every year there's more and more sections that are failing it's really there there's brackets that are holding each the chair in place and it's

041just wearing away um so it's yeah we could replace that section in that and and I I don't want to you know rule out that as an option Rosa at all because I think we should consider everything if we did find a vendor that would come in replace section by section we could um contemplate putting a a standing you know budget item for replacement over time for that room um so we have to we have to look at that so far we have not found a vendor that's willing to come in um and do that do that work but that doesn't mean they don't sort of like Connecticut vendors or yes can we look wider we probably can I'll I'll I'll ask Mr C to investigate that yeah thank you or even is the possibility

042to just rip up the seats and put in like benches like almost like we put in benches for the U commission Grant yep that I mean we can explore all options it is like the sort of the stadium seating so we'll have to you know like a company just come and demolish it y the seats I know you're feeling back issu yeah but we can we can totally we can explore all options and if that's something that the facilities committee wants to start really teasing out and focusing on um we can I can I can we can do that it's tough because you said it's year three but we've been talking about this for years this is theoule years we also talked about the fact that it we also talked about the fact that it

043smells so the car has to come up so that was why it like there should be a whole plan before we just replace right for just your place section yeah that was and and your point Joy is well taken too that um it is in year three you know looking at a 10 years 10e scope and sequence of what needs to be fixed in the district it's hard you know to make those those calls when you you know year one was you know $2.2 million that the tax payers you know graciously and generously funded um and a lot of that you won't see right it's a boiler it's roofs it's those things that like you can't you can't know where the money but you know it's important to to um to invest and so it's

044it really is just making those priority decisions and that's certainly something the committee can look at too is looking at the 10year and saying okay well we have this in year three maybe is it a higher priority for the board we can certainly adjust um those those projects awesome anything further okay um let's move then to the um security test for pleas you were there yeah I was going to say so Dr Bar's update took care of pretty much all the security issues that we had talked about executive session can I just add one piece to that just wanted to welcome a new member one of our parents uh Jim Mitchell uh join the security task force uh he's one of our parents 're very fortunate he actually happens to be a secret service agent

045and um for a different reason he actually put a call to me today from Milwaukee so he's out there uh you know supporting things and uh doing a great job out there so we're happy to have his expertise and thank him for serving thank you well thank you all right um then Finance Ros okay uh we last met on June 18th um where we um we went over the May financials um at that time we were talking about um the projected net budget shortfall that was um approximately 64,000 um that overage was adequately covered by the special appropriation that we had requested from the boards of Selectmen and finance um and just sort of a recap um although I kind of say with all the um with all the finance updates but um most of

046the budgetary shortfall was related to special education and unrealized teach over turnover savings so those were the two main areas um in this particular budget um but I just wanted to remind everybody that we had um previously established uh with the boards of finance and Selectmen um a budgetary uh budgeting strategy really that removes the contingency for special education um cost from the Board of Ed budget um with assurances that budgetary shortfalls such as this um would be funded by Town Appropriations so essentially we keep the max amount um in town funds and sort of um top up at the end of the year as needed um if needed um there are other contributing factors to the budgetary shortfall this year we had um overages in electricity and obviously substitutes um and we also had

047Savings in various accounts as well um most notably health insurance um $47,000 due to shifts in the sensus compared to the amount that was actually originally budgeted um and of course salary savings that are due to uh leaves and vacancies so those kinds of fluctuations are typical manageable um and usually cover with budgetary line uh item adjustments and a budgetary freeze if needed which we did do this year um we uh implemented a budget freeze um just on um all non-essential purchasing and I think that was done probably in April fish maybe so um so yeah so um that's that's pretty much it that's where our um our financial update is for now any questions on that um I did actually want to mention one thing um there is a small um typo in the

048minutes um where the first bullet point under the um financial report it says um that we reviewed the February financial report um it's the May financial report it's just sort of I build off minutes when I up yeah a little electric yes yes definitely so Casey go ahead and thank sure so um nothing like starting off the new with the bang um we got a word from eversource our our electricity supplier that uh delivery rates are um set to increase for um commercial and municipality Municipal accounts um on average between 52 and 57% um the delivery charge of our electric bill is roughly half um a little more than half of our of our bill and so um they they are saying at least through April 30th um to expect these higher rates if not

049you know the whole year it's two months so at the at the 10 months we're looking at about $155,000 increase to our electricity the full year is about 188,000 um now we did we did anticipate um a somewhat you know a slight increase in our delivery so part of that 57% W be quite as extrem more like 50% um but it is significant um and so you know we're we we're talking weekly with um with the town you know our partners over in the town town has the same issue town has the same issue it's it's across the entire you know it's across all municipalities ac across the state Statewide um problem that we're all facing um and so we are we're talking weekly with um the first slman and with uh the town controller

050Marsha and Steve and um and we're looking know ways that we can possibly save in other areas um with our electricity um but just so we're all no surprises when we do our first um yeah I think it was June June 25th is when we we got the notification um yeah our purchasing agent essentially went um attended a a semin a webinar um on eversource updates and that was the the big Hot Topic so um yeah unfortunately this is nothing we could known to to build into our budget um it's something that we're going to face together as a town and and um so so I know months ago we were we were surprised at how high the electric bill was at CS has that gone down at all or we just anticipating it to

051stay no yeah no that that it's gone from that first large Bill uh I think the first bill that we got was $30,000 we hadn't locked in our um our our rate we we have a contract with constellation who is our supplier of electricity um and so uh because CES was not in the board of education's name we couldn't lock in at our board board of beted rate and so um we were paying for a couple of months a higher um Supply rate that has I wish I could um that has since come down to the constellation rate of um 833 cents um it's going to go up to 0988 just like all the other schools um but it is the usage the kilowatt hours all of you know the usage of the building has

052remained has remained consistent with what we were seeing I wanted to say one thing um about this before um we went to the dark place the expensive delivery cost when I saw today really my stomach drop um but I I did want to just give a shout out to the the Educators who um did their work uh in spite of the freeze you know that that's we all know what that's like to to teach when um the supplies you know get Frozen and so Bravo thank you very much it is not unnoticed okay um k before I do that um quick question Casey so you said it has remained with what we've been seeing correct but that's not what we expected um so when we I I I I know we've asked like can someone

053speak to this ton or it's hard it's hard for me to answer um the the the numbers that we got from the engineers uh of the building gave us an estimate of $130,000 that we can anticipate for um for electricity that for that for that building for the um I I I don't I don't know where that went off unfortunately um and I and I've looked back in all the communications it's there's no indication um there's nothing that said oh this is just for your supply or this is just for the delivery or this is just for that I mean part of my thinking was are were they only estimating a delivery charge or a supply charge because it's about half of what it ended up being um I unfortunately I just don't know the

054answer to that um yeah sorry okay on to Cape okay we met on June 12th we reviewed the courses that will not be running next school year so the elective courses are as follows African-American black Puerto Rican and Latino studies American Sign Language digital music technology digital photography e-commerce and Entrepreneurship and journalism and then core academic classes AP Chemistry is not running as well all this is based on low request numbers Sarah and I also discussed with Anna about some feedback we had on what we'd like cap to focus on and that is World language program K to8 andal with a specific F focus on the Desa cohort data pre and post we reviewed all the accomplishments from last year some of which were Lester of math CK pck rights to read Grant IAB Etc

055uh we reviewed April 2 memo regarding instructional coaching data also um lastly I'd like to kind of summarize the instructional coaching survey results that we requested thank you Anna for developing a very comprehensive survey uh for the teachers so that we could be provide a direct teacher feedback um so I'll summarize some of the important information and feedback that came out of the service if you haden't had a chance to look it over um I'll start off with some background information so we have 110 ele School teachers 70 Middle School teachers and 110 high school teachers that's a total of 290 teachers we got 86 responses 23 were from CES CES 28 were from the middle school and 35 were from the high school so out of the 86 responses 50 of 55 of them

056worked with an instructional coach this year and 44 have not so essentially we're only hearing from about a fifth of our teachers of the 44 36 teachers have confidently reported that it's a valuable experience for them although we have a very small sample we still need to look at all the information we have in front of us um and I very much value what teachers have to say and it's really important for them to tell us what they need um some of the positive feedback at the elementary school level and I mention any teacher names so I'd like to read some of the quotes from the feedback this is some a lot of the positive feedback having another person to bounce ideas off of he was valuable in creating the materials centers for us to

057use with the new IM units she helped us become familiar with the new literacy program she's always available at the drop of a hat he co-taught the new I am measurement lesson with me I learned a lot from watching him teach and question the students he also helped prepare the materials for the unit which was a big help she helped me analyze student data and approach my small group instruction in a new way this was particularly valuable since I went from many years teaching K1 students to teaching K5 students and needed support with how to shift my inst to older students here's some positive feedback from the middle school she helped me navigate a new curriculum and modeled implementing more complex lessons I really enjoyed our curriculum days where we could meet and go through

058upcoming lessons and make curriculum decisions she couldn't have been a more better asset she was present in nearly all of our planning meetings on Mondays and Fridays she helped my content partner and I plan our units interdisciplinary project with the literacy teachers made copies of readings for us and helped with anything else that we asked she made us more comfortable the new social studies standards and helped us integrate these new standards within our curriculum I worked with her to revamp a unit this year she really pushed me outside my comfort zone and helped me try new things while I was nervous at first it ended up working out really well and the students were very engaged as a first year teacher I found working with my coach extremely helpful she advocated for me so much

059and was very supportive and problem solving challenges I was facing she was offering so much helpful advice throughout the year and offered to cover my classes so I could observe other teachers teaching in my discipline to support my team modules I worked with three different coaches this year the most valuable aspects were being able to plan a new unit with a coach and have them for the implementation of the unit I appreciated when I was able to brainstorm ideas of the coach and create materials together to turn what we talked about into action um as far as the high school goes because we only have um one uh K to2 instructional coach there was limited feedback um and most of the feedback focused on C- teing AI lessons um some opposing feedback is as follow

060um I personally feel that all BPS staff should be in a position to be directly working with students we have so many students in need we should replace coaches with interventionists we don't have enough math reading MLL intervention support for the students who are below Benchmark our coaches are pulled to sub to frequently to count on regular regularly was not helpful as it was easier for me to just do the work without talking to someone who had very little insight to contribute to the curriculum was truly shocked at the fact that the coach could not find time to work with me because they were making copies for teachers or handing out books for two weeks I could not find the time to meet I was unclear on how a coach could support me um I

061don't feel like I've ever been coached by my coach sometimes the coach's goals don't necessarily align with what we're doing in class at that time or our professional goals when those meetings happen during content planning time it can feel like a lost prep and we're not and we're stressed out for the week so on closing I think that we need to continue to look at the data but we need more data according to the survey uh the number of teachers benefiting from instructional coaches is very limited I think we need to be honest and continue to look forward and make thoughtful decisions regarding our investments and improving student performance I have I have a question for you um you in your summary there you said the um number of teachers benefiting from coaching is is

062very limited um based on their ratings I read the data um when we when you have these this bar graph that you have on the second page of your notes um the question was overall please rate the value of your coaching experience and it's a one through five where one is not valuable and five is very valuable so for the the so for the people who answered four and five those are like the I would say that's really benefit yeah yeah yeah and so that that's like 36 4 responses there was 86 on the first chart there was 46 on the second right so not everybody answered that question right right because if they didn't so people didn't um if they chose no they didn't re respond or didn't work with a coach then they

063didn't get that question so those are the number of people who worked with a coach so of the 48 who worked with a coach in any capacity could be kind you know elementary school or someone at the high school that was the response for those folks well and only people 29% yes right right well we can't control the number of people who who um who respond but um but in this like who you know how valuable was it there are of the people who rated the experience of one or two together those total six so for one and two you have six people saying it's not valuable for the and FES people who said it was very valuable you have 36 so I I just I think the data doesn't support the conclusion that teachers

064don't find it valuable yes we absolutely need more data for sure I mean we're gonna make decisions about keeping this program going or not but but I mean these data show that the teachers who worked with coaches mostly found it valuable um I agree I I Absolut the data that we do have um that way um that's that's the reason why percentages are are reported um additionally I care less honestly about how many teachers respond and more about how representative the sample that we got is of the entire teacher population so future data I honestly like I'm never going to say I don't want this data is useless unless I have every single responding because that would be silly but um I would be interested in knowing maybe um the years of service that the

065te that these teachers are we only getting you know um a sampling of new teachers um and we're not hearing from you know the teachers that have been around a long time so I think that's probably um that just adds another lens to look at this data in but um but I think this is overall pretty good so thank you we also spoke about if I if I can about the um because that was one of the concerns right the sample size was pretty small um and I think we have about 249 certified folks in the district um but uh it was also fairly quick right it was toward the end of the year we put this out I think June 1st so we gave until June 12th or or June 11th um and then

066kind of going forward how we can Garner more um at more opportune times and as we go through the fall and um roll out the new um valuation support growth model um I think that after people set their goals which is where they will be setting a goal about professional development right on their growth goal and then one of the approaches that is um going to be supported by all of the administrators is to work with an instructional coach on their professional growth and development so once that is set we can kind of take data on um those people who are incorporating working with an instructional coach Within they part of their professional development goal and that would be another subset of data right so kind of in general and I think the years of

067service is a great idea um and then also a cohort of those folks who are planning on working with an instructional coach as part of their own teacher valuation plan and then so pre- and post kind of there data we would gather it seems like you heard a little bit of what the the experience level um come through in the qualita like it seemed like some of the folks who were less pleased might have been more experienced teachers who know what they want to do it's hard to only if they kind of shareed based on their you know when one teacher said something about team and that kind of thing when you were interviewing or when you were sending out the surveys did you include special education staff in there and interventionists and reading teachers

068so across all levels and leaving out it was actually sent to All BPS so um I it was all certified BPS across the whole technology integration so focus on high school and how they may have very different experience through and so Jo mentioned that um you know the only K12 or the only person that the high school folks had access to in terms of an instructional coach was our um technology integration specialist who was now that position's been eliminated so um they that although there were many responded no they didn't work with a coach that is also because there was one person to work with at the high school um and so and that was really specific to technology so um although um in her work she partnered with a lot of people on curriculum

069integration and you know having been there was a lot of she you know acoss went across disciplines um but anyway that's one of the reasons that's one of the other pieces of um information to keep in mind with that High School subset let's move now to the consent agenda I move that the board approve the items on the consent agenda as recommended new hires transfers resignations May financials so we have a motion on the floor and a second that the board approve the items on the consent agenda is there any discussion question were people that resigned were they given uh exit interviews uh yes they were often they were offered uh exit interviews not everyone accepted okay could we I know we've talked about this before like compiling that information um is that possible just

070in terms of General back that we're getting yeah sure absolutely actually isn't that Dr isn't that part of your plan I know I read some thing recently about exit interviews yeah so we we do have that data from exit interviews that the interviews that Anna conducts so we can look at Trend data there and share out absolutely but again it's qualitative yeah it's all qualitative it's not a survey or anything like that it's a conversation um I could I I could tell you there are a number of people here that uh two were sharing that they're very excited about their one m to their new school so uh unfortunately you know that happens but uh I'm sure there's some other personal reasons that people would share privately with Dr man if they accepted the invitation

071for an exit interview right so we do offer it to everybody yeah just to just to be clear on that not everybody accepts especially if they resign at the end of the school year we don't see um I could I just uh speak to two two items here so um we're excited to welcome everybody the teachers will be welcomed at the September 20th meeting you'll all get to meet the teachers that's something we do at the first board meeting of the the Academic Year um but just two people I want to draw your attention to um Casey grauso did a great job for us as a long-term sub for the entire year last year and has been hired to fill a second grade spot so we're I just really want to congratulate her you know

072when you get to know your staff and the work they do and and see the magic that goes on in the classroom we just so proud of them and then welcoming back uh relatively maybe four or five years ago um six years ago maybe recent HS grad Caitlyn polardo has moved back to town and interviewed and uh and was uh selected for a third grade spot so we're just uh really excited to bring back in alumni uh as one of our teachers that's awesome okay so um any more discussion all in favor of approving the consent agenda please signify by saying I I post okay so pass great let's move then to new business um so first we're going to start with attendance report um Dr BR we have asked you to um dig into

073this kind of thorny subject about um attendance um and we' like to hear sure so the board received this in their board packet on Friday I hope you had a chance to do an advanced read um I I won't read word for word but I will take my time going through this because there's a lot of context and background we need to build bur and then walk walk right into the to the data it's important to know that uh working with Dennis Petrino the teacher Union president he's well aware that we were uh very interested in in this data the teachers themselves um have expressed concerns when they have to cover for their colleagues and things like that so you know this is this is an elephant in the room um and it relates to

074substitutes substitutes has been a big cost and um how do we get enough substitutes when we have so many people out um do we really have so many people out what is that what are the actual numbers so this is fiable information and it's data it's facts um but really start since the pandemic attendance has worsened across the country and in the state um we're no different um our front-facing teachers are critical employees for our Student Success um we need them here consistently um we have to have them here um their their consistency and their expertise is incredible uh in terms of the impact on students um and when they're absent there's no way to slice it it's not the same for the kids and um they're critically important employes we need them here um

075we SEC secure substitute coverage uh for teachers on a daily basis which is the significant impact on the budget so that last bullet there first part under rationale um this memo is about the daily substitutes what you'll find if you had a chance to give it a close read there's long-term substitutes for somebody on a maternity League or someone who has knee surgery or whatever it might be this is not about that so we're focused on the daily subs which where the disruption occurs and where it's very challenging sometimes to get uh substitute coverage uh big picture context uh for for us here in town um the concern has been articulated not only by the teachers themselves by by administrators uh in the building and and uh central office uh parents have brought the concern

076to our attention the board has expressed concern um it's an issue that touches our community substitute coverage for teachers and other staff are costly not only from a financial point but instructionally as I indicated earlier it's important here's some data for you uh I think Casey bring this together um and also have to thank Lindsay our new HR supervisor she helped with a lot of the data in the charting 7 77% of the school budget is invested in all human resources I think at the time when I presented the budget it was 78% it fluctuates as you can imagine but that it's almost 80% of our budget is the people 57% of the employees here in our district are Serv teachers which account for 70% of all the salaries the Brookfield Education Association which is

077our teacher Union has some specific entitlements and rights around absences which is very important so the reminder um is that they work up to 187 days 182 of which in Brookfield are school days with students teachers are entitled to 15 sick days when they uh first join us through their fifth year after that they are entitled to 20 SI days per year that's every year it gets replenished regardless of how many are used um teachers also are entitled to three emergency days per year emergencies do happen and teachers are contracted I said that to work up to 187 so those are just important facts that we're working with in the context you go to page two the chart on page two um really lays out where we're at in terms of total daily absences again

078these are the daily absences not longterm Subs those kind of absences daily absences um the the chart shows a sixe history the average sick days and personal days that teachers not the other employees that the teachers are out you can see preco in the 1819 year the average was 11.7 days um in the 1920 year when we were out for gosh since March for March 12th so for about three months we were out um absences went down people don't call out as much when they're able to uh instruct virtually um on the year coming back 202 was a hybrid year um and there was also some shutdowns as well let's not forget that because of the uh pandemic um the average was 9.7 once we were back full in 2122 uh absences Rose to an

079average of 15.67% a year um they just don't take time off and there other teachers who take much more than 15 a year for whatever the reason might be and we've been talking about this and making an effort to address this situation um probably not as formal in the 22 23 year but this year we actually took some steps and we talk about those but you can see we've gone down uh up through this past year this is going down is a good thing here down 266 total days uh for daily absences over the last two years so we're happy about that although it's a very slight Improvement ultimately the goal is going to be to get better than pre pandemic okay with we're going to shoot for 10 days per year and that'll be

080our first goal and see if we can pull that off this year and we'll work with our teachers on that so you'll see the things we do so actions taken over the past year that we've been working on um it's really important to understand that um the administrators at the building and sometimes it rises to anos orite level very rarely um that there supervisory meetings to address excessive absences or patterns of excessive absences uh attendance reports are included in some end of your evaluations uh discussions of Faculty uh with the faculty and the staff at meetings um about the importance of attendance and and where patterns might be rising um we have an employee climate survey we just uh earlier talked about that today that I'll I'll be sharing with the board once the principles

081have a chance to have enough time to get through everything climate survey really really reveal where how the teachers are feeling and that could in uh could impact uh attendance so we need to look at that um the exit interviews we just talked about um we've disseminated information regarding employee assistance program that we have um the assistant superintendent uh regularly meets with the Brookfield Union uh leadership uh and and often I'm able to meet with them as well that's called the professional rights and responsibility and ethics group um and we talk about all kinds of things really no no topic um and the teacher contract does have competitive salary infringe benefits as well as uh really tremendous health insurance um and so that's important you always want to be looking at what we're offering our

082employees to retain and recruit actions we are looking to take going forward in this year and our principles are on board with this and and again be working with the Union leadership on on all of these things um continue to work collabora with human resources um and our building principles to develop bonly structure uh to to more effectively monitor attendance and supervise uh all employees in their attendance and making sure you know a month isn't going by that if we're seeing something in a week or two we need to address it right away um at the building with with our staff um partnering with Fairfield University right now for one intern um they're they come in a bargain value compared to like a building sub and so we're also uh working to partner with Western

083and others some of these conversations are in the works to get some interns in there um which also helps in recruiting down the road as well um uh taking a look with our um our our administrators uh on leadership influence on teacher efficacy I talked about that earlier in the superintendent report and also the reflective intelligence work uh partnering with Boston College that work like I shared um a lot of it will happen at the high school but it will U be integrated um throughout the school district that work directly aligns Anna was sharing with me she was so excited how it directly with the ruler work Ka so there's there's a lot of overlap but where we don't have some of the rulle of training available to us for High School staff we're we're

084going to have that reflective intelligence work that can be integrated into new teacher evaluation so we're really looking at Purpose Driven work and you know what's driving uh your purpose in education why are you here and really trying to look at the effective side of things to support our staff um use the climate survey data to ascertain you know what may be impacting faculty and staff um there's also at the school school climate committees these are comprised of teachers students staff parents ad and administrators and they can grapple with data and address concerns uh at that level as well because this is really granular and becomes cultural at the school level um as part of our continuing uh analysis of all of this is looking at further questions so as we go through the year

085what are we going to be looking at I mentioned the word Trends before what are the days of the week what are the months of the year um is there certain kinds of job stress or health issues people are having employee demographic is our are our younger staff all young parents and they have sick children at home um do we have an aging staff where they're they're having Health complications you know what's actually going on really study that are there realized benefits of Outsourcing the subservice and looking at ESS is there a way to bring that back in like we used to is that going to pay off or not those are all things we need to explore um again climate climate surveys what do they tell us um and maybe they tell us something

086about the context of our Greater Community I we don't know the answer so we're really wide open to looking at this um and through HRS there's some best practices that our new HR supervisor um could could be implementing or starting to apply uh to further support our employees um you know and do we need is there changes that maybe need to be made to the contract as we think about in matriculating down the I matriculating I I don't know and so we're going to look at that um I definitely want to come back and give a report in either December or January want to give enough time this fall and then certainly this time next year um but the the last part of this before we get to questions there's the financial impact and substitute

087data in case you can share a little bit about that to make sure everybody again this is daily attendance we're talking about and everybody's crystal clear on exactly what this report tells us so okay so can you take that thank thank you very much so the chart that you have in the in the memo here um it highlights just like as Dr will said just the teacher Subs um and again these are the subs that we get from ESS that are coming in to cover um a teacher absence for either a full day or a half day um and and in the the analysis of the number of absences those are the number of unique absences so that that would apply to these teacher Subs um we are spending approximately $270,000 annually um to cover

088these sort of emergency um sick days um uh for just teachers in the classroom um you'll see the other categories of substitute cost we have um we covered for um absences for Paras um for monitors those are uh lunchroom cafeteria monitors those are strictly hourly employees um a security monitor was out on an extended leave we had to get an a substitute for that position uh long-term Subs are generally those are paid out of a different um budget account U and it's not budgeted because generally we we can have um salary savings to cover those expenses and um I would cup um pulling getting subs from ESS the um the Outsourcing uh vendor is like a 50-50 shot with the longterm Subs right um maybe even less it's harder to get long-term placement Subs through

089ESS so typically um we they have a certain amount of time to try to fill the position when they can't we um fill it uh you know ourselves internally um and then this last line here Subs through payroll um so we pay um our certified teachers and our Paras it's all in the CBA the collective bargaining agreement um teachers are paid a a set rate if they have to cover a class period or you know a half a class period um Paras are also paid an additional hourly rate above their contracted regular wage if they are covering for a teacher in a class um and so you'll see in in the breakout of the different um schools that happens more often that than at the school when there's you know the block um schedules that

090they cover for um and and important to note our fill rate with ESS is roughly 64% so out of out of all the the absences that are called in that we need a substitute for ESS is able to fill about 64% so that's why you do see these Subs through payroll because we can't get a one to one fill rate um on a teacher being out but yet it's critical that we have you know um uh an adult to teach the students that are before them in the classroom and so um and so that's where that sub through payroll um comes in um so part of that also is is likely due to these you know the the sick the daily sick call outs and things like that but really I was focusing on those

091teacher Subs that are pulled in from um from ESS is any questions on that what's the rate that the teachers are paid for that Subs pay um $60 for for a full period3 for a half period okay my question is similar um how much does Subs make what is what does proi pay so it so it depends um if it's a a permanent building sub I believe that's $115 a day 115 yep um a building a daily building sub so someone's not that isn't permanently in the building all year long but just is called in for a full day of substituting for a teacher um and then Paris are 105 how does that compare with um local districts yeah it's it's competitive it's it's it's competitive can you be more specific I I can I

092mean that can be we can add that to the list of data that come back to come back on I don't comp local yeah I can I can speak a little bit historically um last year when we were working with ESS on on this past Year's contract um we were much lower uh than area um than the other districts that ESS served and so and also with the increase in minimum wage going up in January we had to renegotiate that so I think that my first year um here it was in the 90s per day and so we went up maybe 95 um and so we went up to 11 and 11 respectively in order to be more competitive and also make sure we didn't have to adjust mid year with the adjustment in um

093minimum wage um I don't know if you guys just saw this I can't remember what the publication was but I just saw there's a maybe it's a city in Ohio I don't know that is being 355 a day 355 that's 355 and I thought alternate universe okay but thank you inform thank you very much Sarah you have a question I had a question um I know you're you said you're going to get us a climate survey results sure um but do you see any connections between this data and the lack of participation in the um instructional coaches survey that we were just talking about you know I don't know I mean Anna alluded to it I think the instructional coach survey was at you know at the end of the year and I'll be honest

094I think people were tired and frankly if the we can more if the principles maybe use 10 or 15 minutes um if we ask them to do this because they have their plans for the Wednesday afternoon meetings but the teachers are with them and say hey guys you know for the first 15 minutes of the meeting you know this time around do the survey is really important so I think if you you've got to give people some time to do it if you just put it out there so there could be but I don't know great question also when will you know more about um the possibility of getting um long sub are interns I'm sorry I should say uh from other schools folks in the academic world are not as busy in the summer

095as we are so we make calls and send emails and they're not always answered so we're trying so last year um my first year uh when I got here I started reaching out to Fairfield and UV and Westcon and um Central and I got a response from Fairfield and that was why that's why we have a Fairfield intern coming in this year and hoping to continue to get responses but it is a bit slow goinging they they look many of these um programs you know have to place the student teachers first and we actually had a few student teachers as well but then those student teachers have fallen through um but uh you know the internship program is great because they usually have to for their practicum spend two years and half of the second

096year as their student teaching but one of the and they usually have to be in two different schools one each year um and so you actually you know a flat rate that you pay the university you essentially pay for their year of school and then you get them as they they you can assign them wherever they need to be assigned if they don't stay in one particular grade level or classroom so we're excited about bringing that program here um I I'm sorry Casey I think the other thing that we can't forget because we've talked about it quite a bit we are in a world of teacher shortage and teach teacher uh teacher candidate shortage in the programs so what we're robust especially graduate programs that have these interns I mean 10 12 years ago I

097remember the the phrase sixpack you could get six interns for a certain price there was I mean it was just so many people there were so many people that that's what they called it at Quint PX era I see you laughing over there quu they that's what they called it was of my my my name and so they had all these different pieces um and they don't have as many students in their programs either so that's another piece that's impacting this um and again we need to attract you know newer and younger folks uh and changing career folks to education and keep working on that I know the state department is working on that and I digress I don't want to go any further and I was just going to note from a from a

098budget standpoint um it it does um serve us well to have these intern interns come and and especially if we can have the full year of the internship and then the student teaching as as a a semester in the following year it's a savings from having a daily whether whether it's to cover for a PA full day per um sub or or a permanent building teacher substitute position it stays anywhere from 7 to $10,000 annually uh for one intern so it is um it is something that we we are eager to grow I was also hoping or maybe this a suggestion um for an additional action or two that you can take um thinking the Box a little bit um you know like connecting maybe um Central Administration connecting with the teachers and maybe you

099know Dr B can can cover a class for a teacher one day you know just like out of the blue or um I don't know if this is something principales say to their staff but um sometimes it can be stressful that you can only get a doctor's appointment at 2:30 and if they know that they can take it instead of having to take the whole day um that they can get coverage for that half hour whatever ever it is um I don't but maybe that's already being articulated to the staff so the principles do work with their people to try to be as flexible as they can but also can't interrupt learning and there all those those um constraints but to that point one of the things we're noticing in the daily piece and this

100may this is another area we're going to look there's an in a sharp increase in in half day uh S Type day versus full and so that's interesting why is that d so that's another piece to talking um the covering class is actually a fun idea so there you go so I I wrote it on a list so we could have a we get or you know there may be some high school teachers that have elementary school children and they you know got stuck a day and they can maybe a bus can bring them to the school or vice versa Arrangements the only way we know is to peel those layers back for the staff and what they're I do I do want to just point out that um that coverage from the buing Administration

101happens on fairly regular basis that's great and I want to ask a quick question about the ark program do you guys have inroads with them we have communication with them all right get on it one of our we're on it believe me we we don't want to have to deal with this we want this solved are we ready to move thanks everyone thank you um welcome so next item on the agenda is an update about special education ask Mr Ren oh we're going to give you this microphone over thank you Dr make sure I have this thank you members of scol Welcome to the board um I have a brief update tonight no charts no graphs no PowerPoints um to just talk about some of the things that we've been talking about and kind of

102see where we're where we're going um we are halfway through esy already uh tomorrow although we have a fifth week for our ELC students but we've had a a really good two weeks uh at our locations uh I want to talk a little bit about professional development because in terms of our strategic plan um one of the things that we want to move forward with uh as sort of a sequel to the IEP quality train training is something I've talked about with Jody manat at at Advance uh Who provided us with the IP quality training last year there's an IP audit tool that I think can help answer some of our compliance questions uh help answer uh questions that parents and teachers and staff have had about making the IEPs more uh in terms of

103what the actions are and the goals and OB objectives how do we know what do we have for data and and you know as I've reported to you uh to the board uh since I arrived last last July is data collection progress monitoring how can we be better at it how can we improve our existing structures and systems so that when questions come up we have Hard Solid data to say this is how uh students have achieved or not achieved their goals and objectives so that's one thing that is coming um when we talked about the working group uh a couple things I did after uh I presented and and got feedback from the board which I really appreciate was that I uh reached out to Dr corvo uh and when who helped with the

104correct report to have her take a look at the at the uh the Strategic plan and to talk about the working group so uh she had some feedback for me and I also know that uh I welcome participation from the board on the working group when we get started this fall um so I want to make sure that the board was aware of that um uh in terms of septo our special ed PTO with Martin mcniff one of the things we've been talking about and talking with with parents in general is parent workshops uh sometimes our septo meetings are more kind of question and answer or they might be kind of topics of Interest or just general let's go over what the it looks like um one of the things that came out of the

105discussions were that in other districts which I'll get to in a second other districts have parent workshops or even when we had parent University at um whisk earlier this year it occurred to me that special education could have its own parent University of special education parents to be able to to speak to that in our community because we do have uh ongoing conversations with parents and with teachers and with students and with staff we need to harness that and make that uh an event that can help our special education parents and students and staff uh build the community that we do have here in berkfield in addition uh cont which is uh the Connecticut Association of special education administrators um I'll continue my membership in that but also starting to look at other programs in

106other districts through collaboration with other directors and again this is nothing set in stone but just thinking about things like alternative programs what that what those look like transition programs what those look like and just to be start looking at other District and trying to see how they did what they did what was their Foundation what was what was their procedure and how did they approach building those uh those programs so that's something that I'm looking forward to doing with the existing relationships I have with area directors con case is more of a of a larger group where instead of kind of having a conversation with three or four you might be with 20 or 25 directors uh kind of brainstorming and and um looking uh through that particular lens um pieces again of of

107professional development talking about the identification process um having our teachers uh reinforce and strengthen their knowledge of when we get a referral what that looks like what our procedures are for identifying what our procedures are for um going through all information and all data that's presented to us when we are looking at identification or reidentifying and requalifying the student um in terms of our new legal team uh from Shipman and Goodwin uh in previous districts we've had uh I've had the pleasure and the opportunity to have uh legal updates and Dr Burl and I have talked about this to have um uh shipment agreement provide some legal update specifically for our teachers and maybe some legal background for our Paris um this is something that that we talk at with at cabinet uh talking about

108next steps and what else we can do to to reinforce and and uh help the learning of our of our teams in District spoke about the Strategic plan uh also talking with Jody manat about some co- teing professional development he has done some modules in other districts with that and he's been talking with me for years about hey I got a a great co- teing a set of modules I'd like to talk to you about it so um Jody and I have known each other for about 10 years and I I continue to welcome his his input as he is the director of special education for at Advanced resk and they are our partners in moving these things forward to go back to go forward for a second the IP audit tool is being provided

109free to us uh the training is being provided free by Ed Advance because that's a new uh initiative that they have that they wanted to look at a district where they had an existing relationship and that's why uh Jody came to me about that and again talked about parent workshops that's kind of an overview again like I said no charts no graphs no PowerPoints but I'm well happy to take questions uh for from the board on these matters or other questions that you might have ahead and start um thank you for the update um I I do have a a bunch of questions because as know um we get a lot of public comment emails surrounding special education and it sometimes at least for me puts us in a position of like what can we

110do right um so you know could you maybe sort of go through maybe the step-by-step process for a family or Guardian um maybe who's unhappy with some of the services that they're receiving through Brookfield um or maybe is just not receiving at all um to sort of go through that complaint process sure absolutely and what I will preface that by saying Rosa thank you is that the procedures I'm going to talk about are not unique to Brookfield that there's a process that every District in the state follows but let me give you the the Brookfield base excuse me first the basis and then we can talk about procedural safeguards and the special education complaint process so if there's a concern about um anything related to special ed as I've said in my in my prior

111presentations I always would want folks to reach out to me however even before they reach out to me I would want them to if they already have a student with an IEP to talk to their case manager and talk to the supervisor in the building because that's that's the first line of uh building based support that does not mean that I wouldn't also want to have a call so it's not me saying don't talk to me it's it's talk to the case manager talk to the supervisor if you feel like you have other questions or concerns or you feel that that need hasn't been met um I would welcome calls and I've gotten calls and we've and we've worked through those things um to then take it to the next level so a parent might

112call me and say I don't feel like my I my child's I was being filed this is where it gets to a larger concern every parent uh who has a child with an IEP has uh an immense number of rights that were guaranteed by the Ida act in federal law when you have a PPT you were given since in the old days we would give you a hard copy which is about 80 pages but now it's electronic of procedural safeguards within the procedural safeguards are all the rights that a parent has including the right to question uh whether or not their their child is receiving the appropriate services having said that within Connecticut the process at that point would be to call a state consultant to file a complaint I might take a little detour

113and come back so bear with me if a parent files a complaint uh the parent would get a call from the consultant that receives that complaint the district also receives a copy of that complaint the consultant then would talk to parent and get their concerns talk to me as the Director who would receive the complaint to talk about we received this complaint at that point there's a bunch of lanes of traffic if you will um in some cases parents might want to go directly to a due process hearing which would be with a hearing officer and which would be you know legal would be involved lawyers would be involved my experience with Brookfield and also in my previous districts is the state has been more um open and more suggesting that before we go to

114a due process or before we go to um let's say an investigation of the complaint could we look at mediating and through the mediation process that would involve sometimes it involves attorneys sometimes it doesn't um that's where we have a a mediator appointed by the state who is usually in my experience a retired special ed director an attorney who's who's versed in special education law who used to be kind of in person where you would kind of go from room the the the media would go from room to room in the age of Zoom we now have a case where there's a zoom meet setup the mediator is the meeting holds the meeting and then Keeps Us in different rooms and kind of goes back and forth until we can find maybe an equitable settlement

115which generally could be compensatory Services it could be uh additional professional development vment uh additional training or additional evaluations so again it's I don't want to not answer the question but I also don't want to get too specific into the the end goals of of a mediation at the end of that it's sort of an agreement between the parent and the district that this is where we find ourselves if we didn't do this correctly then we would like to offer this um so I'm and I'm probably going no that's okay no I just have like I get I get off on my procedural safe you can't stop so so um obviously at some point in our history we've gotten at least a few of these right that have gone to theel like and I think

116every District does because that's sort of the the the mechanism by which parents have recourse to question whether or not their child's receiving the services or whether the IEP is being you say that um I'm trying to think of like like how many get resolved sort of at the district level without involving the state oh I mean I this is where I I I what what I'd like to say versus what I legally feel is is appropriate to say you know Consulting with councel my philosophy's always been in parents who who know me know that I'm going to do everything in my power to resolve it at our level but there's also times in every district with every director where if that's something that you don't feel that that you've gotten the recourse to that

117you feel that's why the procedural safeguards are there the the that that parents have uh those protections for their child within IEP to be able to bring forth a complaint of having somebody look at that or having somebody investigate to see that the state looking at that to say did this happen didn't it happen to what extent did it happen what could be the recourse for it what would look appropriate for that so for me as a director and I think I would speak for other directors that are friends of mine in other districts I would love to be able to settle this within the the the the sculpt that I have but that's not to say that parents don't have the rights to file a complaint talk to the state go to mediation do

118process and all the the the mechanisms that they have as parents because I think any of us as parents would not want to think that we didn't have the ability to use what's given to us at anpt which is the procedural SA yeah for sure and I and I also I mean I agree because I I think like I mean those are procedural safeguards that like are really only applicable to families with students with special needs correct regular don't really have those no and it's and it's specific even within the law I'm sorry rosea interrupt you this I get I get on a on a on a that's okay um you know it's part of the law that they that the parents receive that even from a referral from an initial referral you you receive

119those now there are some parents who have been friends of mine over the years who I've maybe known their child since they were in first or second grade and they say here comes the procedural safeguards again I I I have so many of these but half jokingly but at the same time it's like but you're getting them and they're there for when you need them you may not need them in third grade or fourth grade but you know what you might need them in seventh grade so yeah you're getting them every year now you're getting electronically and I'm happy to provide the board with an electronic copy of that uh following the meeting just you guys can have that as a as a reference point but you get it for every DBT you get it

120for every every referral and it's not something that we do you know readings of at every meeting or but but you know I have had cases where I've gone over them with parents say okay this is in here if you have a question about it you need to read through it and if you have a question about it call me because what we don't what I don't and what our what our department doesn't want is for me or us to be obstructionist on it those procedural safeguards are there to protect students and for families to have free course if I don't highlight that on der elction of my duties right so but you would say you're confident in saying that most of our issues are handled before they reach sort of that level yeah without

121getting into numbers I would say we've had very minimal uh in terms of actual you know State complaints I can tell you for a factory we have no due process cases this year um I don't want to broach the topic of numbers on however I will say that in some cases a complaint this is going to sound strange but a complaint can be helpful and that it shines a light on what we need to do better and what we what the state looks at and says this is something that you need to examine and this is something that you didn't do correctly so even when I'm talking to State Consultants I'm not in fear of it I I don't want to say I welcome it because no one wants to welcome however it's got to

122be instructive because if it's if if we don't get feedback about what we're not doing well then what we're doing well doesn't mean as much if that makes you know we do a lot of things well and there are other things that I've said in multiple presentations here that we do need to work on um and I I want to say within that the amount of support that I receive from central office you know Dr Gill and I talk every morning Dr man and I talk every morning Mrs Dia and I are in almost you know constant communication because our offices are all near each other and if we're talking about having h a shared vision and working through these issues and kind of talking through if there's a concern or a an official Complaint

123or even just something as simple as I've got an issue I want to run run by you and I say this with with with modesty but also with confidence you guys know I've been in multiple districts and i' and I've had administrative roles in previous districts the amount of access I have to Dr girl Dr man and Mrs di is more than I've ever had flat out period and and I say that to speak to the amount of um understanding of my role as a special ed director you know I feel with the board support and with Central offic support I have autonomy but I also have the ability to create relationships and to be able to look at these um concerns and complaints and not say oh no that's not that couldn't be possible

124it could be possible I've been in enough districts where there's there's a grain of Truth when a parent brings you something that's uh worrisome to them or that they feel that they haven't been heard I don't think there's a parent in District right now that say they haven't been heard by m because there's been phone calls that we have resolved there have been issues where it has gone to a complaint again don't want to get into numbers but through that it hasn't been oh there's this over there or there's that over there this is part of the job to make sure that all kids get what they need and if that includes a complaint process then so be it because that's how we get better could you then sort of expand on maybe what a

125parent or family member could do if they're still unhappy at the end of obviously mediation is mediation so there's an agreement there but if it goes to due process and they're not if like is there a role for the board in any of this no that actually it would it would be and I want to say this with all due respect to everybody on the board it would it would look like a conflict of interest if you involved yourself uh in speaking with with uh Mr Maher one of our attorneys and having worked with him in previous districts when there's a a process that every District goes through for special education complaints for the board to and I and I say this just from experience for any board to um put look into it while

126the state is looking into it would be would make it seem as if you are part of the decision-making process versus allocating resources and it could cut both ways it could be that it could look like um you are trying to protect special education from complaints or it could look like you are advocating for it's just it's a stick it's a sticky situation it's a slipper slope and so there is a process at the state level that handles it and then a due process to answer the question I think was embedded in there yeah the due process hearing uh decisions are final like so that's like your last that'll be the last piece and and in those cases where a parent would Prevail the district is also responsible in most cases for paying attorney's fees

127for for them as well so in my mind the more the more local you keep it in terms of complaints the better off you are however if it gets beyond that the the board would be uninvolved for the good of the district if that makes sense it does actually um so there's there's a role that you have that I respect deeply you know that but there's an impression that could be left if the board involved itself in a specific case other than knowing the process being able to ask questions about the process um you know when it turn when it turns into something where there's a a settlement or or maybe an outplacement where there's a financial piece which you know would come up through Finance but in terms of the actual process of the

128complaint it's pretty clear from the procedural safeguards but it's also clear in the state process that you call you get a consultant the consultant looks into it and then it proceeds from there if if that process doesn't result in a mediation settlement or doesn't result in satisfaction for the parent that's when due process and there's a du process form for that as well so it's Connecticut there's forms for everything right so there's there's a form to fill out for each stage of this that is not a district form it's a state form so the same process exists in Wallingford in New Haven in Bridgeport in deran in Richfield in I could name all 169 towns but I'm not going to but but the process is uniform so it's not like it was created like Bill

129modifies it and and Dean Catalano and Trumble modif it his way and you know different directors make it their own this is the process we follow so last question probably the most important question I could ask you um when you think about you you've spoken about how the board is sort is uninvolved in in that process um but if you think about where special education in our role does interact is there you need from us and I mean think about our policies are there any policies that conflict with the work that you're trying to do or the improvements you're trying to make or do are there any policies that could give you air cover to make it easier or is there some way where our budget interacts your work that we could allocate funds or

130is the last one multiple choice but you know I you mentioned it before but I mean sort of you know our our employes is the superintendent um is there anything and people glow about you so I mean there's I hear nothing but good feedback about you um and it seems like you're the right man for the job so um actually kudos to to John and his team for I wouldn't be here if Dr Brill hadn't hired me that's so that's yeah so that's sort of like three rounds of interviews he was he was the the final literally the final boss so support funds policy is there anything that you feel like you need that we could do better i' like to respectfully ask that I reflect on that and maybe get back to you on

131that but I also think that you all have taken my presentations very seriously and thoughtfully and now as I'm entering year two as I talked about starting to look at what else could we do in terms of programming in terms of professional development that may be in terms of allocating resources when I come to you and say hey I looked at this I saw this I think we could do this I think this would benefit our students whether it's and again I'm I'm pipe dreaming here therapeutic programs in District transition programs Alternative High School things that every District talks about but that's where I think the support for our department would blend with where the board's role is and again I've never thought for a second that there was not 100% support from any of

132you in this board or in the previous board that I worked under um as I said with with Dr Brill and Dr man um Dr Brill brought me in he was again the final interview so the support I'm getting is immense but the support I get from the board is equally immense but it's it's how I want to leverage that if that's if that's the appropriate word rather than come to you to point a phrase had in hand every third meeting and say by the way I also need this by the way I also need that I'd rather again my first year was really kind of examining looking getting to know people kind of looking at practices some that work some that need work and Reporting on that to you I think the second year

133is going to be to take that start making it visible in terms of what inclusion looks like in the schools what systems do we have in the schools to highlight that um versus just having talks about IEP training which are are important but there's we're talking about kids and we're talking about making them feel part of something and really at the end of the day with special that that's what we want to make sure is they have access to everything everybody else has and that we do it legally and that we do it ethically and that we do it with them in mind at all times so I will just say from from my perspective from the board there will when when we're presenting the budget we're and we're putting that together and I have

134ideas or I kind of map things out for you that may be where the discussion of support would be most appropriate okay thank you I have a question when you talk about um alternative placement and and sort of programs that you could explore in place do you also think about Advanced programs in that sense like um not just students who are struggling and behind but also students who you know need more than what the classroom is able to offer them just through the nature of talented yeah and and so talented gifted I could do a whole other that's and and and I will say this and this is again I think every District struggles with this in that you can identify students is talented and gifted and we have but then there's no necessary statutory

135obligation to provide right programs so that's something that could be considered I and I will be honest I have heard I've gotten I've talked to parents about that not as much as I've talked about other issues around special education it's certainly something to look at um but I you know again my special education experience and brain I started out in a self-contained Behavior class at Asus 25 years ago so I always think of how can we capture those kids in District what could we do you know that so my mind is always rightly or wrongly thinking about things I've done things I've participated in and how we can make that happen in Brookfield but again these are pipe dreams I'm not here to present your programs tonight God knows but I just just know that

136I do think about that and those are conversations that we have every day yeah because and that's more I didn't expect you to like rattle off program I'm just thinking is that but I could um I just wonder if that's also part of kind of the long term and keeping them in District my goal would be to look at programs and people that we hav we yes and I think it becomes you know what would it look like what is our vision of it because I have also seen where somebody somewhere says hey let's do an alternative program and I was kind of part of that one hey let's get these two teachers and give them these kids and thoughtfulness that's where the Strategic plan comes in that's where the working group comes in if

137we're going to do this let's take some time and look at what should it look like and look at other programs and just see what do they do well what what do we not want to do so absolutely Bill thank you for the for the leadership and and all the answers to those questions tonight I I'm sorry if there's one more I do want to say for Stephanie just as a new board member over the last nine years there's been several times we've tried to bring in maybe tag or enrichment and you know budget pressures um you know got got us to a point where it wasn't feasible to bring us forward so always is a good consideration um but where it falls in priority list based on the the by law that that bill

138talked about I'm sorry here thank you Bill um as far as the Strategic plan thank you for all your hard work thank you and thank you for for offering to participate as a be as a parent and a boy I'd be honored but um you know I think that laying out parental safeguards is really important and they're not easy for parents to interpret to begin with um it's not cut and dry each one of these steps is not easy to um with you in District it's a lot easier for parents to understand so um I think that's really important to say um I'll also say that parents don't go into having to everything as a parent you want to deal with at District level right absolutely so having to go into a mediation or due

139process hearing is not what a parent correct it's it's a heavy it's a heavy decision on both sides unfortunately sometimes that's where that's where it ends up that's where it ends up or that's where the state recommends sure I just want to clear that up as far as special ed I think you know having an identified child myself they all each child is individual looks different right so it doesn't always look like they're struggling or it looks like they're behind some of them it just looks different right they learn different their outputs different the I was going to say the product looks different exactly so I think it's really important to you know understand that not every identified child is going to look like they're behind um and I think um I'm really excited with

140the Strate strategic plan to include the identified students for the sole purpose of improving you know inclusivity and climate um they feel them um and it's really important that you know they're seen valued and heard and their experiences are individual with that being said you know thank you I do have a question how many how many identified students do we have or how many new identified students do we have this school so I could give you a number but the number is going to be a net so let me and let me explain that by going backwards to go forwards so and again I have the numbers in front of me but I I I will I will approximate in Octo October 1st our October 1st count was 371 365 I you know this is

141one of the things where I'm writing down my notes and that didn't get on my notes so that's that's on me but if I said to you that that that number is up by 10 that doesn't take into account kids that are exited kids that have moved in kids that have moved out um referrals that are made so if I told you it was relatively flat that might be approximating but it's a snapshot and it's the the I don't want to use the word volatility but the but special education you know on any given day a student moves in that we that we work with a student moves out that we work with somebody gets identified there's a referral that that all of those things factor into the change which I think really comes down

142to that October 1 count is like here's our snapshot of where we are at this point that's what the state takes but if I told you from September to June if I looked at number in October and October and a number in June and I said it's plus 10 but it's really not plus 10 it could be plus 25 five because referrals kids who are graduating exiting things like so all of those factors make me give you an answer that's not an answer you know so and then my question is do you see an increase of parent referrals vers District referrals I think with parent referrals they are driven by parents who experience see hear something with their child that they think there's it's not something I need to find out more about this and

143that is almost always the the conversation that we have of either they were doing well and now they're not or I I could give you a million a million different different stories of of what parents tell us um I would say it's probably more parent driven um only because I think that's where the concern comes from and I'm not saying that every child that a parent refers ends up qualifying for special life but within that I think the questions questions come from both school-based teams and from parents I think the parents' questions are always very personal very um you know they home they're playing or they they they see something in their work they see something in their behavior and they want to know more more and that's kind of what child find is about

144to say if you suspect if we suspect a disability we are honor bound and legally bound to pursue that um and to see whether or not that student needs services so that's my roundabout way of saying having no quantitative data in front of me but being able to kind of say experience-wise anecdotally probably more parent driven with that maybe what I hear more versus what I'm you know um and again with school-based teams it's it would be a different it's a different different path so and my last question just with school-based teams so I mean what historically parents experience you know through the identification process it was like response to to intervention and then srbi alphabet sou srbi RTI so you know whatever its acronym is now um it's tier one tier two right and

145it looks different for each child so I think my my question is who's the gatekeeper at tier three and are is a referral process happening where the person at tier three at least halfway through at the four-week Mark if this child is not making progress or is still struggling is there conversations being had with special education so when the referral does in fact at 8 weeks go to special ed that there's data that we've crossed our te's dotted our eyes and done everything we possibly can in the least restrictive environment to service this child I think there's more conversations to be had around um the tier three to special ed referral and that's and again that's that's not a Brookfield thing that's a that's a um AC cross districts piece where there's progress monitoring there's

146data collection then there's that convers ation that happens and it takes many forms um where the the the school-based team may invite uh special at supervisor special at teacher um School sitech into to kind of talk about those referrals one of the things as I'm talking about things that we're working on professional development the identification process was one of the things that that came up in conversations both with teachers and with parents and with um with my friends in other districts um so that's something that again answering it by not answering it we're working we are working on strengthening that relationship because to me the best referral from a school-based team is the data that says to us as special Educators it's time for us to look beond it but there's also I don't want

147parents to not think that they can't make a referral to so there's there's a there's a Crossroads of you know interventions and parents having concerns and have we gone through that process but I don't want child find to mess that up either so again thank you I just an answer that that took me 10 minutes take 30 seconds the teered intervention is really um you know and that's something we're uh more conversations we had this year and I think part of the professional development plan that we're that we're developing um for our special education teachers is also looking at that making that clear for all of us because a special ed sometimes we have blinders on and we we're not necessarily focusing on the tiered interventions because we already have the kids in our on

148our case load but absolutely Fair Point and and looking to do more with that no we have that new reading program which is great you know so hopefully early ident and this is where we can we can have more more a stronger connection than we already have so um Bill you gave us a ton of information um I think one of the key takeaways for people who are new to all this is that um parents who need issues resolved relative to special ed go up the food chain to you and if they choose to go over your head it's with the state and parents of children in traditional education if they have problems it's the food chain up through correct yeah it's and and to to reiterate Wendy um the amount of again procedural safeguards

149for me are those all those rights and and and legalities that a child that a parent of a special a child has that a Genet parent would not have exactly I'm sorry I should have no and I don't want to I don't want to I don't want to right right but labor yeah but it's yeah it's it's there are two tracks so right you know for my general education friends always happy to talk but I'm not going to be able to speak to your issues as the principal would right you know so so I just wanted to to Circle back and and and law you for the IEP audit tool and hooking us up with that advance to get free training that's amazing um your septo work with parent workshops and maybe instituting a parent

150University here it's fantastic um looking at other districts we think is really good and um and maybe implementing co- teaching modules that's that's wonderful so thank you for good work you know co- teing happens but we could all always benefit from additional coaching sure so that's um along those lines the idea that you would work with our um with Chipman and Goodwin um to get legal updates for teachers and Paris that's fantastic because we get questions you know when there's questions I I think it's it's valuable for them to know it at the at the in their role that they have so it's it's a legal update that could be targeted for special teachers um Paris is understanding the legalities of their roles just because in in meeting with par Union these issues and questions

151come up of hey could you and would you and again um not to belabored but again I I I do this with the support of Dr burin central Office Team and with the support of the board so I thank you all for that um the one I actually have known Jody for a few years small world and um talked to him recently about all of the things that Ed Advance can offer for free and it's it's because if we can tap into that it would just be I I met Jody when he was starting the Post University transition program and we've been friends ever since so he's he's an incredible resource and I'm incredibly happy that I'm in a district that where he is part of the rest that I work with yeah no I

152just think it's amazing can tap into that as res thank you thanks everybody appreciate it okay so the next item um and we're going to talk about uh the policy Services of Shipman and goodwi so I move that the board approve the Shipman and Goodwin's policy services at the initial cost of $4,000 as recommended by the policy Communications subcommittee do we have a second second just so we can open discussion on this item yeah okay so um it looks like discussion is in order um R would you like to start sure um okay so I I do have um just somewhat of a minor concern with this just because um and you know most of you guys around it was just joy and I um years ago we did contract with pa um and spent

153a lot of money on their policy Services um and it just seems like things got down in policy regardless so I was trying to sort of understand um and I know Stephanie you were trying to explain it to me as you know there's a lot of policies that we're legally required to have and we would be sort of adopting those outright um yeah maybe give me a summary and then maybe my questions can stem from there yeah so in the previous meeting in May um we had had a discussion in the policy committee that was our first introduction to the chman and Goodwin um information and at that time Paula was the chair and then when she left we didn't have we sort of were trying to figure out how to um move forward and

154I got some questions along the way and heard some questions when we discussed it at the June meeting which um I had given the policy update in holl's absence and so through from then to now I heard questions I kind of processed everything that people had questions about and I got some clarification on this so what my understanding is what our understanding is the policy committee is is that Shipman and Goodwin offer the legally required policies and I don't have the numbers I have the paper that has the numbers I haven't counted because it was just at the meeting tonight that I thought to actually get the numbers um but I can get that information for you but the legally amount the the amount of legally required policies for an initial fee of $4,000 so

155that would cover adopting their legally required policies and that comes with them updating them as needed any um Services we needed surrounding those specific policies so uh question uh going forward now after this year it will be $1,500 every year to just maintain that book of policies cave right now we pay 3,800 and something around there um so we if we adopt the shipment and goodwi policy today we would not pay cave for the current Serv Services right there this next year so that $4,000 would repace Le the 3,800 that we already pay C so it would only be an increase of $200 for this year and in subsequent years we would actually be saving because it's only 1,500 to go forward now per where it's 3,800 per year for C does that make sense

156okay so then what we would do as a committee is we those legally required policies because they are also our lawyers we and as a board we would agree that that and as we adopt them we would simply Brookfield IE them right so we just go through and we say this applies to Brookfield and as John Dr BR has pointed out anything that we are leg anything and if there's a law that supersedes it anyway so there's even in the transition even if there's policy we're not sure of like that the law we have we were covered in place right so we would still go through those policies right because you want to read them but we would read them in bulk we talked about we we just barely got into it tonight about how

157we would move forward with that possibly have you know um each of us take some maybe the committee in at large you know could read through the Le just to Brookville ASM to make sure we have everything we need right and that process shouldn't take too long and then any of the policies that we have we would group together and Casey had this great spreadsheet idea that I think I believe she' used in her previous District where you sort of group them by ones we haven't updated you know there's been some comments about has been pointed out that we have policies that have not been updated and part of and I I can only speak to the last seven months that I've been on the committee and just from my observation and from knowing what's

158been going on in the district in the last two years the policy committee had to spend a significant amount of time adopting a book challenge policy and so that I know may have like again I can't speak to exactly what happened or what went on but I do looking through notes and sort of not that that's an excuse that policies policy should have taken a back seat but that with one meeting a month that's a significant amount of time and in addition to that knowing that we have legal like whatever the the law requires we're already covered for those so that's where some of the you know we talked about last weekend or last last meeting we had a policy that mentioned a TV station we don't have a TV station so like those are

159the kinds of things that we would go through um we would take you know a series at a time and the things that are most important we would group those and go through those so cost wise we're actually long-term savings and we are not we're not paying them a additional rate right does that make sense yeah so does that clarify and answer your questions um yes I mean yes or no I mean I I do wish I kind of had like an idea I know we have hundreds of um but I I would like to know like how many of those are we going to be able to just like sub in the word Brookfield and adopt outright because they're very legalized and they're very sort of standard um because that that to me would

160be a huge chunk of the policy committee's work um do you have but I think but I I do still have like there is this like you know um to go through and leg or Brookfield eyes um policies is a little more than just putting in Brookfield right like they might call like the the Student Activity fund they might call something else and we need to spot that and we need to correct it and so it's it's a lot of painstaking work so I just want to sort of have confidence that this is actually going to make us more efficient in policy because yeah you're right I mean spending a year and a half on one policy was a complete waste of time but aside from that side note like has the policy committee thought

161about maybe meeting like a different time so that you guys could get like more than an hour a month yes so we have talked about we've talked about various scenarios and uh the previous meeting with Hollow we had talked about maybe meeting for two hours or two and a half or during the day um Joy had brought up maybe we split them ahead of time and rather than having to meet an additional time we take that responsibility on ourselves Aon had suggested tonight that we meet more than once a month so yes we we didn't think too much about that because we want to make we don't want to spend time trying to figure out a process if we're not going to actually adopt them and mo forward um and because if we do decide

162not to adopt the shipment policies we still have outdated policies so we still have to go through all of them essentially that we haven't right and Dr BR talks about it as like the B Gate Bridge where you like get to the end it takes four to five to six years and then you have to go back to the beginning because you now have you know we don't have a TV station anymore so you law change over time there's there's another point that needs to be made here and I appreciate you saying the painstaking work because I I shared with the with the committee that um there certainly a certain amount of anxiety if you're a board member attended diso we're just going to are we just adopting a series of you know you know

16330 policies you know I need to really understand these so you do have to take your time and go through them there's no doubt about that um but there has to be there hasn't been um confidence and faith in the policies that are provided to you so in the cave Services example lawyers draft those policies and we do some painstaking work and then people have opinions on the policies and want to change something in it well when you change one word in a policy it changes the it could could very well change the entire legal meaning of that policy so then after we PID for Cape Services Dr BR did you check with attorney Mur turn so now we're paying twice for this and the time it takes given you are volunteers working through all

164of this um I shared some history before I got here years before I got here it was eliminated but there was a halftime position that handled policy so there was somebody working here that didn't have another full-time job and was working on that which could help expedi be a little more expedient with some of these things and get them to the board different pace so there's a lot going on here and a lot of there's a process we need to going forward whatever we decide to do San cave services or going with uh should we go dropping Services totally and just figuring this out on our whatever it is we have to come up with a process the other thing that needs to be noted is all the folks who' served on the policy committee

165that I've served with for the last nine years have given their all some some board members are here others others are obviously not on the board any longer um 150 plus policies have been updated in or renewed maybe it's more than that at this point so a lot of work has happened so the notion that trying or there's lack of effort or whatever just just is a false notion um uh and the laws change all the time that's why the the painting of the Golden Gate Bridge uh uh analogy there because the you can have um I think there was a public comment mentioning the bullying policy you have it it's an extensive policy with regulations on top of that that have to be adopted it to then train people how to implement that policy

166and then there's a law that changes one uh the next summer and you have to get on it again and change it again it's very it is not only complicated but it is complex it just is so those are that's some context for everybody but that that is sort of my concern that we are going to spend another $4,000 and then we're going to say okay here read these 30 policies and there's going to be issues with every single one of them and we're going to have so it's what's the point and so that's that's kind of like where my concern is is that if and that and that's the the the board's AFF the board has to be confident in the policies they're getting from their legal advisor if they're not going to be

167confident from their legal advisers and they want to do it all themselves then they're going to have to do it all themselves and I can't answer that question right and I think that that's that's where my main concern lies is that it's like I don't think it's the policies I think it's the efficiency of that committee to be honest but that's sort of so we as a new policy committee can only speak to what we're currently doing and how we plan to currently move forward so that's if that's that's a valid concern and a valid criticism but I don't know how to speak to it because the intention I think from our previous two meetings where we discussed it together was exactly that to make it more efficient to agree that this is our it's

168also our law firm and so it feels different I think um knowing that they're you know it's a lot of we're I feel like I'm competing sorry um that you know we are moving forward with people who we are paying have our best interest you know not that we weren't paying cave to have our best interest but it is not going to be the painstaking process I believe is the intention because of the integration of those two factors and so all I can say is that Our intention would be to trust the legal firm adopt those policies you know do a read through to see what Brook Field ising needs to happen but not question the validity or the value or the wording or any of of the things that we've had that we might

169have to spend more time on on the non-legally required policies and that's going to have to happen regardless so it's not like whether or not we adopt these so did you guys did you guys vote to recommend this motion tonight so we you you did that back in so holl Jo and I voted and then because she left and we didn't have it noted in the the way that comfortable we and with the addition of Aon we wanted to we thought it was a good idea to talk about it we recommend it to the committee okay so I just have one I just have one more like sort of procedural procedural question so let's say we go ahead let's say we uh we vote to do this tonight how does the next procedural step go

170like do we say okay we're going to take the 6000 series and review it in bulk as a committee and then it comes as a bulk quote to the board so yes that that is my that that is the that is sort of The Proposal that Casey had made that made the most sense to us that we had started to talk about tonight and kind of started decided not to get too far into it because we don't spend too much time on something that may or may not happen so yes the idea would be that we would group together the policies that we recognize are uh innocuous right or things that are no they're Antiquated that we no again I keep using the TV station as a result but as the example because that's the

171obvious one right then things that are more complicated like you know some of the things that Mr kria brought up we would have to individualize them so the idea would be we would go through the policy series group things together and say okay these five policies can be deleted are no longer apply you know here's what we recommend and would be in that way and then some of the more complicated policies we would say okay you know we need to decide whether or not we're going to keep this do we do we need a policy that states this this isn't only do we have a policy that they've put in place for us that covers this so that is the intention um I think I just I would like to hear from the people that

172are on the Comm now so i' like to get your input on this I mean and I stated obviously to this but um not not knowing um you know not speaking to the attorneys my concern is you know looking at the document that was given in August of 21 from cave all the legally required or most of the legally required policies were updated right laws probably change they probably have to be re-updated I'm interested in knowing from the attorney how many policies are we talking about that they're looking at legally required because I think you know obviously the legally required ones need to be done but I also feel like we owe it to the community who's bringing forward policies that need to be updated that they need to be updated so I mean I

173think you know we go we need to meet more you can't do it so once a month I maybe okay so so we're just talking kind of sidebar about would it help to have the attorneys talk to us specifically about this as a board is that do we want to invite them I agree with you I'm just asking as some there's some concerns I don't I don't know so um the of us and Robert um uh all remarked um during the interview process when when we were looking for new attorneys that we really liked this feature that this is a feature that uh that this District needs and that we liked the the fact that we would be um I don't know what we to use but like um well yeah we wouldn't have to

174like horseshoe around the C polici then check in with our journey and not Reinventing the wheel and saving money and just being more efficient and and these guys we we could count on them in real time to update with um new statutes new federal regulations current Court decisions like this is what we need I mean that's those are my thoughts and that's what they conveyed during the interview I me I understand that and I mean I just think that we have a responsibility to the community I mean we spent almost $14,000 with C from 21 to date it's a lot of money and a lot of policies are still out of date so I mean I just I just I think it's and and the board can table this for tonight and the policy committee

175can meet again and come back I mean you don't have to make the decision just I think like just to just to clarify I think like maybe your understanding like the polic to do that anyway this is just sort of like so that you basically don't have to word Smith everything it's just sort of gives you but I mean to that end yeah if if that's what's going to happen in policy anyway then you're right it's going to be pointless to do this pointless to do what to say like okay we're g to spend $4,000 to get their policy but then our policy committee is going to rip it up anyway and and start over that's pointless so I just wonder how many of our policies that we have redone right to be legally compliant

176how many are out of date right now that are mandatory that need to be done that really is my question that that would be another audit that we'd have to do of all the policies and and there's a service cost to that I just want to um to speak to just I think that I think we're talking about or you folks are talking about two different sort of votes or actions one is just to engage in a policy service right which we currently do we do that with cave which is $4,000 a year sorry $3800 a year and then the policy services from shipment and Goodwin um are are attorneys that we pertain for for $4,000 a year and year one so that's one action is what policy service because you're you're you're going to

177engage policy service from a vendor um this year and so that's the that's one action and consideration and then the the idea of the process of updating the policies whether you pull the policies from Cape or from shipment and good goodwind is not I don't think what is being asked to be voted on tonight so I think there's there's a and there and there is going to have to be a process either way whether you start with cave or you start with shipment and goodwind policies there does need to be a process for the committee to bring policy by policy by policy by policy to the full board for adoption and it can go pretty swiftly when you when you start when you crosswalk what you already have with what the the recommendation is whether

178it be cave or should be Goodwin it really does go pretty quickly and I think the ideas at the committee level um was really smart that you you know maybe each Committee Member take five policies in this month's time read our the currently approved and the recommended from shipment and what needs to be changed and bring that recommendation to the committee and it and it you know involves it involves a level of trust among multiple stakeholders right trust among the attorneys that that is a very vetted model um policy which which you know I think the the thinking is that they are um and then among committee members and board members that that betting process has happened again and then the conversation can go pretty quickly um and that that is what we did and

179when I was on the polic committee um in in my town and and we were able to go through all the series it did take a couple of years but you do feel like you are every every board agenda had policies that we were approving um and so you do feel you get traction after a while um so that was just my yes and to piggyback on that that is sort of the the point I was trying to drive home in the beginning is we have we have the current policy um um service in cave $3,800 we're just we want to engage shipment and Goodwin for their policies which is $4,000 so the the difference for the upcoming budget is only going to be $200 and then in addition to that we as a committee

180will have to move you know we kind of already have this plan in place of like this is how it work if we do not go with shipment and goodwi we still have to go through all those policies we still have to go through say okay what's outdated what have they gone through because we are a brand new policy committee we also have to refer so there is still a lot of uh footwork that has to be done we're not saying that this makes that null and void or that this makes it any easier well no I in my opinion it does make it easier because the way that they presented it to us and in the research that I've done and the questions that I've asked it feels like our lawyers giving us our

181policies as much much more efficient than having a set of policies that are recommended and then also having to Circle back to a lawyer to make sure so any services in my understanding that we engage with them in those policies we can ask them questions we can should be an additional charge there's no additional charge there is also my understanding is from this memo a discounted rate if you want to engage them in policies that are not legally required or if we're at a standstill because there is language or if the board votes no on something and we don't know how to proceed so it's not like we then have to Circle back to them and be charged at full cost they offer a service in which we can then we have like a track

182to their their door like we have an open door with them right and that feels different than cave because cave feels separate than having to with the lawyer right and in this in this vein and in this if we adopt shipment and good ones policies it's sort of like a it's an Allin kind of thing right and that feels to me like we can trust it right our our lawyers have our best interest not that we couldn't trust the cave lawyer obviously they have our best interest at heart but it's not it's it felt like two separate things we had to do right we can pick up a phone in a meeting and say hey we have this question it doesn't have to be this like formal they're going to charge us x amount of

183dollars we you know right that's and that's from I remember from them can can we Sarah I'm sorry Sarah yours on this I'm skeptical I just think that we since 20 21 you know we've had stuff that it's kind of sitting on so I don't know I just numers like if I had like what are we doing what's going on I probably wrap my head around it more but I'm similar to to Rosa's questions I'm just sort of apprehensive day right but I also think looking at it or talking about it through the lens of us really making a decision to spend $200 more right so we're spending 3,800 anyways I mean was pretty IAL too when I saw the policy when you know or I saw August of 21 I listened to the November

18421 meeting but I mean realistically we're talking about $200 and our attorney doing it so I mean if we're going to pay a policy service I'm more inclined to use policy service that we already employ that we employ that has our best interest um but I also think that it's imperative that we get policies over I thank you Casey I like how you put it I kind of laid it all out um that really uh made it clear for me that we're really voting on the policy service and I I think that's why we all really wanted to engage when we were on board with them it's because they provide this service um but I agree that moving forward fine tune the process um at first I thought maybe this is fiscally irresponsible but um

185and I feel like we haven't really fulfilled our allegation with from C's recommendations but um and moving forward we're really voting on you know who's going to you know be our fa of our policy so okay um's there's a motion on the on the table um are we are we good to vote then all right um so uh all in favor of approving shiping of good On's policy services at an initial cost of $4,000 as recommended by the policy Communications subcomittee please signify by saying hi or Y no just kid all right so uh it's unanimous and thank you very much um the next action new business is subcommittee structure um and I don't think we'll have a a motion but um uh the so we have welcomed Erin in um we were sad to

186see hollo um and so in thinking about committee assignments um and eron this is mostly um about you I realized that the that in my experience um being a member of the finance subcommittee was the very best um education that I could get about being a new board member um and so I think that um it's it's a lot of work but I think um you'll do a great job I'm glad you've agreed to move to finance um and I will be um moving to policy in the space that you would have occupied we had um talked about maybe doing a big shakeup and then that seemed to feel um doing sorry you no no no no no I've misspoken twice toight that was maybe the worst um keep yes sorry um I know well

187we've got policy on the brain um so I don't I don't think that we need a motion for this there aren't any major um changes we like I was just saying um I thought about doing like a a major shake up but we're just getting the lay of the land we're just getting good at our jobs now so um maybe in a couple so how is the finance structure going to be laid out as far as um who's attending the board of Finance meetings that's a good question um because I just have reservations with you not serving the finance being the chair I'm not saying that Rosa you're not more than capable of that well she's she's extremely capable so um what I what I forecast and I haven't like mapped it all out in

188my person calendar um is um probably attending um for finance meetings when I'm able to um just to listen in I mean it's such a dense education you know and it's so Dynamic um and then going to the board of Finance meetings yeah I I would be there as well so there's there's just so much to learn all right um so with that let's move uh we have no old business um so we have to a public comment um and for that we have I read Korea 45 West wi Road um I just took some comments with all the presentations tonight um just giving my own child's feedback regarding instructional coaches um um she was in her Middle School class the regular teacher gave the pre you know gave the lesson and then the instructional

189coach came and gave the lesson a different way and actually she became like totally confused afterwards so that's one student feedback coming back um she's a pretty bright kid and for her to get confus to her to confuse her is pretty hard so sometimes you know doesn't work for everybody um in the classroom um with regard to um two things regarding Subs a couple weeks ago there was an article in the news Times regarding um the pay rate for Subs in Brookfield we are the lowest in the area um and Brookfield made a quote in that article um the $60 for a full period does that mean it's 120 at the high school with the 80 minute blocks that's a question um at the high school um because we have block scheduling um um I'm

190just trying to um and regarding surveys and participation uh at my job they do surveys all the time uh that HR is always like you know answer your survey answer your survey a lot of people don't want to do it uh um I do it it takes a couple minutes but a lot of people fear of giving negative feedback is somehow going to be techn you know technically you know you know directed back to them somehow and it will affect their you know raise or promotion or something um that's why a lot of people don't participate it's the same with you know how many times you get oh did you like want to review at Nike or your review at um whatever store you bought something on Amazon no I I don't want to I

191just delete those I go right through a lot of people don't want to do that especially negative reviews I don't like to put anything negative out there you know for a restaurant or stuff I'll just tell people personally like eh yeah don't it's not that great so you have to be careful surve that who's participating and the feedback you're getting because a lot of people are afraid of you know the technology tracing back to them um and with regard to um Special Ed I just wanted there was some comments from the board asking like what can a parent do I was one of those parents where I did go through the whole communication CH change um going to my case manager going to supervisor director of special ed and going up to the building at

192you know the TSO ad a and not getting answers had we had nowhere else to turn so we came here and your job is to make sure that the head administrators are making sure people are falling through on their jobs and they're doing their jobs that's the role that you have to say are these people doing what they're supposed to because according to your communication policy which I followed we exhausted everything on the way up that's why we came here and we spoke and we were frustrated thank you Mrs Gam main points with that we'll move to the three main points um Stephanie what did you come up with and guys see if you agreed so I went back and forth but I was thinking the security update because there's some significant things there um

193the cape update that was a robust conversation and the special ed conversation you say security update Dr update in his um in his update about the well it was from the security task force meetings that like the new yeah en okay security enhancements oh yeah that's a smart one um and then you said um update and the special conversation great I was thinking those would be what do you guys think those S like the three main points from tonight okay great right on the only uh announ or upcoming event that um I have is that the first day of school is September 3rd Tuesday o Labor Day wow lucky for Brookfield my school starts a week earlier um okay so um is there without objection 9 we adjourn at 9:37 thanks everyone I